Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.

Topspin

The Illinois State Board of Elections has revised sharply downward the number of voters whose information may have been hacked in a one-month cyberattack that began in June.

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After initially saying fewer than 200,000 voters' information may have been compromised in an attack of possible foreign origin, board officials now say the number is closer to 90,000.

Officials confirmed that about 700 voter records were viewed, and the 700 people will be notified by mail as required by law.

"In addition, approximately 86,000 records are strongly suspected to have been viewed and the board staff continues to identify those individuals. Anyone within that group will receive written notification within the next 30 days," the board said in a statement.

In addition, the elections board said hackers viewed 3,533 records that will not be able to be identified.

Board officials restated that no files of registered voters were erased or modified, and that no voting history information or voter signature images were captured.

But if a voter's records were viewed, hackers could have obtained the voter's name, address and date of birth. And if the voter provided a phone number, email address, driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when they registered, that information also may have been viewed. (Rick Pearson)

*Independent Maps group seeks rehearing: The Independent Maps group that saw its proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting struck from the ballot last week by the Illinois Supreme Court is now asking the justices to grant a rare rehearing.

The state's high court ruled 4-3 along party lines, with Democrats in the majority, that the map proposal unconstitutionally exceeded what can be done through a petition-driven citizen initiative to change the state's governing document.

Though the proposal had been struck down for a variety of reasons on the trial court level, the Supreme Court addressed only one issue: assigning new duties to the state's auditor general as part of a multiphase process to create a commission aimed at taking much of the politics out of redrawing the state's legislative boundaries.

Those new duties, the court's majority said, went beyond the strict limitation that citizen-initiative proposals affect only the legislative article of the constitution.

In its request for a rehearing, the group said justices failed to "provide the citizens of Illinois with any guidance about whether a redistricting initiative is even permissible, let alone guidance about what the permissible contours of such an initiative would be."

"The majority opinion is inconsistent," said Dennis FitzSimons, who chairs the Independent Maps group as well as the McCormick Foundation board.

"At one point, it says that the auditor general can't be involved because that office is not now part of the legislative article of the constitution, but at another point, it suggests a redistricting initiative could use a nonlegislative actor to help select a redistricting commission. Which is it? Without clear guidance, no one will be willing to invest the time, effort and money necessary to put a genuine redistricting reform initiative on the ballot," FitzSimons said in a statement.

Just how rare is it for the state's highest court to grant a rehearing?

The last time was in 2006, the case of Murray vs. Chicago Youth Center. (Rick Pearson)

*Group lauds Duckworth's support for expanded Social Security benefits: The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is rolling out statements from U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth and other top Democratic U.S. Senate candidates across the country who are calling for an expansion of Social Security benefits, not cuts to them.

"In Congress I teamed up with Sen. Elizabeth Warren to introduce the SAVE Benefits Act, a bill that would give seniors, veterans, and Americans with disabilities a raise. Whatever we do to balance our nation's budget, it cannot be on the backs of our nation's most vulnerable," Duckworth said in her statement.

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"Many seniors across Illinois are barely making ends meet and Social Security makes a real difference in the lives of working Americans. That's why protecting and expanding Social Security has been, and will continue to be, a top priority of mine if elected to the Senate," she said.

Duckworth is among nine Democratic U.S. Senate candidates backing the change. The group also includes Democrats Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Patti Judge of Iowa and Ted Strickland of Ohio. Duckworth, a two-term congresswoman, is challenging first-term Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk. (Rick Pearson)